Born December 29, 1808, Andrew Johnson began his political career in Greeneville, Tennessee. Johnson successfully ran for a seat in the lower house of the state legislature in 1835. After serving three terms in the state Senate, Johnson moved to the United States House of Representatives, where he served for ten years, 1843-1853. He also served as Governor of Tennessee from 1853-1857. In the fall of 1857, he was chosen as a United States Senator. In 1864, the Republicans nominated Johnson as Lincoln's running mate because of his staunch Unionism as a War Democrat. After Lincoln's assassination on April 14, 1865, Johnson was sworn in as the seventeenth President of the United States.

Johnson faced the difficult task of reconstructing the nation in the wake of the Civil War as he assumed the presidency, and Johnson and Congress clashed over control of Reconstruction. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 established all male individuals living in the United States "without distinction of race or color, or previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude," as having the same rights enjoyed by their white counterparts.

President Andrew Johnson vetoed the bill when it came before him. However Johnson’s veto was quickly overturned by a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress, and the bill became law. Johnson's vetoes of the Civil Rights Act as well as the Freedmen's Bureau Act of 1866 contributed to the growing disdain felt by the Radical Republicans towards the President, who sought increased federal aid to former slaves and intervention in the South. Ultimately, the prevailing atmosphere of dissatisfaction with the President would lead to Johnson's impeachment in 1868 by the House Republicans. Johnson's presidency was spared by a single vote in the Senate. Johnson suffered a stroke and died on July 31, 1875.